Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-08-19
BRATrIEBORO FRIDAY 49, 1887
TIE HOUSEHOLD.


true one. In our use OF II we have made 1t
signify 'sparing' or Saving /" as, economy
Of money to mean, saving money economy
Of time TO mean, saving time. Ruskin
says that this is barbarous use of the
word barbarous with double meaning,
for it is not good English, is bad Greek and
worse sense.
Economy no more means saving than
spending 1t signifies the administration of
the house its stewardship spending or
saving That is, using money, time, or
any thing else to the best possible advan-
tage Crystalzing this thought, this defni-
ton into action, as worked out by human
being, it would be a life filed with work
rightly directed and gain wisely applied.
BY this we may know that whenever we
see want and degradation there has been
idleness, or the result of labor misapplied
where there should have been frugality of
time and means, there has been waste.
Using the word as we have has brought
it into disrepute with many. To say that
person is economical, to the average
mind conveys the idea that he is parsimo-
NOUS, that he denies himself the good
things Of life and begrudges to give to his
neighbor If person is wasteful and ex
travagant he is spoken of in commendatory
terms as "open- handed." We have heard
servants and washerwomen-peop who
had never had even the comforts of life be
cause they had not learned the first princi-
| pies of true economy-cast an innuendo up
on some wealthy housekeeper because
she patched her garments, or was unwilling
that wholesome food should he thrown into
the garbage barrel. If the right ideas Of
pride and prudence could be instilled into
the minds of all the children in our public
schools, in a few generations abject poverty
would cease to exist.
pride can live in three rooms and wear
| plain clothes can eat beans and potatoes
can talk or sit silent can travel on foot or
stay at home says Emerson.
1t is vanity that spends all or more than
all Of the income which borrows with no
expectation of paying, and gives for the
sake of having it known and talked about
| 'Tis vanity and not pride that ruins the
lives of millions of our people and it seems
as though the misuse of this word ''econ-
omy" is helping to foster vanity. To many
minds, to speak of person as economical
is considered almost derogatory TO his char
acter, and many vain persons have been
wasteful where they should have been pru-
dent, because they feared the criticisms Of
the world in this respect.
The secret Of success in life is not meas
ured by the income, but by the outgo The
more one has the more one wants, and
want is a giant whom the coat of Have
will never be large enough to cover
wealthy friend whom | had not seen
for years was showing her elegant gar
ments As she laid them out for my in
spection-furs, velvets, satins silks, woods,
dainty aces. all rich and elegant-this suit
for the street, that for the opera, this for a
lunch, and that for IA ball asked if, with
all these things, she was satisfied
NO. she replied as she lifted her large
eager eyes, full of usefulness and soul
hunger, 81 was more contented when my
garnet cashmere dress, with the bonnet Il
match, was the only good suit had. &c
A trait known in children is this want
ing everything they see. When we have
outgrown this we have taken "A long steI
toward real manhood and womanhood A,
soon as we know and are content in the
knowledge that we cannot have and do not
need everything that others have we look
upon life through rose -colored glasses and
seek our happiness in Il direction best suit
ed to our individual needs.
Economy and thrift, as taught in New
England, was matter of principle. But
one grows narrow if one lets economy de
generate into parsimony The plain living
and high thinking that Wordsworth st
much valued is "A cheering ideal. Wher
the world gets to looking at economy in its
true light, and obtains that pride which
will make us respect self, covetousness
self-seeking and vanity will be banishet
and the ideal life will be a thing of reality
There is quite as much foolish saving a.
foolish spending, but the naturally prudent
mind does not at first see this. The wisesi
way to obey Ben Franklin is not to Gear,
for the pence by boarding them. Tn,
, cheapest is not always that which costs tn,
least money. 1t is poor economy that save,
at the market and pays the doctor. TIL,
5 books that cost the least are not always the
most economical to buy. The overwork Of
the housemother, when the children ar,
young, TO save the wages of a servant, anC
| in old age be able to live only at "poor
T. dying rate with always nurse or ply
stefan in attendance, is poor way to max,
the pounds take care of themselves. T,
bend over the children's garments unit
sight and health fail, to save the price of I
few pairs of French kid boots going to
seamstress, is neither economy, frugality
{ nor common sense. Starving the intellec
S by putting the price of few books wher,
it will draw interest is poor economy o
e the means given for today's use. Tru
/ economy is a wise spending as well as
a | wise saving. Economy is a virtue parsl
p mony a vice The one who practices tn
t first is rich the one who practices the last
. though he have millions, is always poor
e The one who practices the first will ca
/ wholesome food, and wear as comfortable
= garments as he can afford, all the Will
e feeling that what he cannot have he will
e not want. The other will invite dyspepsia
e by poor or insufficient food, constant,
S wanting what he will not procure. an,
2 pass his time in a continual worry lest h
Il spend his old age in the poorhouse.
n As we go over this road but once, W
:. must get all the comfort out of life toda
r that we ever expect to get for this day
n Our children are never children but once
= and if their lives are made hard and bar
! rem that we may practice for them falls
d economy, saving for some future day
is which they may never see, the day wi
surely come when we shall wish that W
could undo what time has taken from GU
reach.
: Real poverty is to go through life starve
I for the good things of this world. But |,
:, US not mistake what the good is We al
- not thinking of riches, or fame, or beauty
~ or dress, when we use the word good.
: We are thinking of the books almost with
:, ones reach, and for which the mind hui
y, gers with keener sensation than that 81
y perienced from physical hunger of I'll
y hunger for church privileges, denied b.
! cause the toiling and spinning of the 81
= days has made the body so weary that Ell
>, tire physical rest for the Sabbath is an al
~ solute necessity. Starved for a comforts
- BILE home-as simply comfortable as OF
IL may devise-and all through life sit uPon
" hard chair, look upon bare walls, and wa
e upon dingy floors we know of men Al
- women who do this that they may ace
mulate more land, more stock that tn,
may tear down and build larger. Econom
le is trise saving economy is mise spen
SO ing. The misery moral proverb, "Tal
care Of the pence, and the pounds will tai
care of themselves" may be true, but it
also true that that there are many who
ne trying to save life only lose it.-ChristiC
h | Union.